April Letter

Dear Family and Friends,

We have some exciting news we would like to share with you. Many of you may have heard it already. Our family is planning on moving to Africa this August. All six of us. (Emily, who is our sophomore in college, doesn’t want to be left out.)

You may be wondering . . .Africa? Why? How did this come about? Frankly, sometimes we ponder this ourselves! It all started with a little restlessness at work for Michael and a little daydreaming on our part. Michael has really enjoyed his trips practicing medicine abroad as well as teaching. Lisa also enjoyed her time in Slovakia this past summer teaching English. For some time now, we have been planning to serve overseas in some capacity at a later date (in fact, Lisa has been going back to school in preparation.) After seeing how well our kids did this summer in Europe on vacation, we were inspired to go sooner rather than later. We thought fall 2009 would be an ideal time and started exploring options.

In just a short time, things happened very quickly! We were made aware of an opening for fall of . . . 2008. (That’s a whole year sooner!) An acquaintance and colleague of Michael’s had to unexpectedly leave an ENT position open in Jos, Nigeria at Evangel Hospital with SIM (Serving In Missions). We are currently seeking to fill this position. We will attend a weekend interview this May 14-18 with SIM in North Carolina. At that point (if both sides are still agreeable) we will officially be invited to join SIM and specifically to go to Jos, Nigeria for one year. After admission into SIM, we will officially begin to raise the support necessary for our year there. Michael had initially intended to ask for a sabbatical with his current job, but that has been denied. At this point he intends to leave his job anyway and on his return either be re-hired by NW Kaiser Permanente or find another practice opportunity in the Portland/Vancouver area.

In Jos, Michael will be operating at Evangel Hospital and training local Nigerian doctors who have not had the opportunity to train in the West. Hannah, Sterling, and Camille will be attending an international American mission school that has an excellent reputation. (We will need to be in place when school starts on August 6th.) Emily will be helping Michael as much as she can in the hospital. Lisa will be doing just what she is doing in the U.S. . . .running the household, entertaining, and hopefully finding some spare time to teach English here and there.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers at this time. We have a lot of decisions to make along the way as well as a lot of preparations that need to happen in a short amount of time. We already have the blessings of our pastor and family as well as a significant part of our support pledged.

We will keep you posted! We have four months and counting . . . .

Sincerely,

Michael , Lisa, Emily, Hannah, Sterling, and Camille Mitchell